-- THE ARCHIVE --

SINGAPORE
Judicial CP - April 2011

The Straits Times, Singapore, 2 April 2011

'Heartbeat molester' gets 10 years' jail, 21 strokes

Serial molester preyed on 28 schoolgirls, aged nine to 11, over 11 years

By Elena Chong

FOR 11 years, the serial molester operated in the
heartland, preying on young girls returning home from school.

By the time he was caught, 28 girls had become his victims.

Yesterday, Martin Tan Chye Guan -- dubbed the "Heartbeat
Molester" by the police because he asked some girls to feel
his heartbeat -- was sentenced to 10 years' jail and 21 strokes
of the cane.

Described by the prosecution as possibly the worst serial
molester in Singapore, the 48-year-old pleaded guilty to eight
charges of molesting girls aged nine to 11 at staircase landings
of HDB blocks between July 1999 and October last year.

Twenty other similar considered in sentencing.

Tan was remanded for psychiatric examination last month and
diagnosed with paedophilia. He was found to "pose a risk to
non-acquainted, female children, especially those in primary
school (six to 12 years old)", according to consultant
psychiatrist Kenneth Koh.

He said Tan would most likely prey on lone victims and pose a
danger to society.

Tan, a parcel courier and part-time property agent, was
arrested last November after police were tipped off by a member
of the public when his CCTV image was released through the media.

The court heard Tan would usually wear sunglasses to shield
his identity, pretend to ask for directions, and lure the victim
to a staircase landing.

At times, he would ask the girl to feel his heartbeat, read
her palms, expose himself and force her to touch him.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Agnes Chan said that in four of the
instances, Tan posed as a Chinese national who was lost. In one
such case on Sept 30 last year, he entered a lift with an
11-year-old girl and told her he wanted to find his friend's
unit.

After a while, he said he felt tired and invited her to sit
next to him at a staircase landing. There, he grabbed her hand to
touch his chest to feel his heartbeat, then slid her hand towards
his lower abdomen.

Shocked, she pulled her hand away. He left when she threatened
to call the police if he did anything further.

Eight days later, he approached a nine-year-old at a lift
lobby in Sengkang and forcibly pulled her to a staircase landing
in a nearby block. There, he molested her.

Pressing for a stiff sentence, DPP Chan told District Judge
Roy Neighbour that Tan had shown himself to be a persistent
menace and danger to society by committing multiple offences on
young victims over the past 11 years.

"The accused is clearly a risk... and needs to be
incarcerated for a substantial period of time to safeguard the
safety and interests of the public."

She said Tan took advantage of the victims' kindness to
exploit them, morally corrupted their minds and left them
emotionally scarred.

"Based on the available precedents, it appears that the
accused may ostensibly be the worst serial molester in
Singapore," she added.

His acts were committed in the most brazen and
audacious manner and right in the residential heartland.

In her victim impact statement, the 11-year-old said she now
feels very scared whenever she goes home late, and would ask her
friend to accompany her to her block. She hides behind her mother
whenever the lift door opens and she sees a man standing there.

Click to enlarge

The nine-year-old was traumatised and in shock after the
incident, and could not sleep for weeks.

Another girl, who was 10 in 2002 when Tan molested her and
exposed himself to her, said she was not able to take the lift or
staircase alone for a long period after the incident, and that
she stayed away from men -- even her own father -- because she
had lost trust in them.

She had no male friends until she went to study in a
polytechnic.

Tan's counsel said his client, who recently divorced, had
brought great shame to his family. Even his two teenage children
are estranged from him because of the shock of finding out what
he had done.

The Straits Times, Singapore, 5 April 2011

S. Korean jailed for housebreaking, theft

A SOUTH Korean national who burgled an office in Chinatown Point five years ago returned here last October with a false travel document and committed a fresh slew of housebreaking
and theft offences.

Choi Hee Soo (right), 36, re-entered Singapore with his life
savings of $20,000, which he had hoped to multiply by gambling
with it in the casinos. When he lost all of it, he became
desperate.

He took to doing what he had done before -- break into office
premises. He committed 37 burglaries and stole cash and property
totalling about $97,500.

Yesterday, he was jailed for 4½ years for housebreaking and
theft. He was sentenced to another six weeks and three strokes of
the cane for entering Singapore without a valid pass. Thirty-five
other charges were taken into consideration.

Click to enlarge

Assistant Public Prosecutor Puvaneswari Sandirasekaran said
Choi's first burglary was committed in a shipping company at
Chinatown Point in May 2006. His haul then comprised $2,000 and a
Rolex watch worth $10,830. Between last Oct 21 and Nov 1, he
broke into other premises, netting property worth $68,117.

The court heard that he had entered Singapore illegally
through the Tuas checkpoint on Oct 20 using a false passport. It
was also told he had wanted to relocate his wife and three
daughters to Malaysia with money he was hoping to win at the
gaming tables.

The Straits Times, Singapore, 20 April 2011, p.B6

Cabby broke relative's arm over dog 'abuse'

By Khushwant Singh

Taxi driver Louis Goh, 34, who had been jailed before, was
yesterday sent to prison again. Upset over the standard of care
given to his dog, he had attacked his brother-in-law and
fractured his arm in two places.

Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to causing grievous hurt to Mr
Yap Kwang Fue two years ago and was sentenced to 1½ years' jail
and three strokes of the cane.

A district court heard that Goh handed over his dog, a shih
tzu, to his younger sister in 2007 as he had no time to look
after it.

He later became unhappy with its care as he had seen faeces
stuck to its fur.

When he found out it had been hurt in a collision with a
cyclist, he decided to punish Mr Yap.

On March 9 in 2009, he drove to his sister's home in Jurong
West. At about 9am, armed with a metre-long pole and a penknife,
he ambushed the 33-year old machinist at the void deck.

Caught by surprise, Mr Yap could only try to block the blows
from the pole. When passers-by intervened, Goh fled.

Doctors at the National University Hospital treated Mr Yap for
the two fractures on his right arm and cuts on his head and left
arm. He was given three days' medical leave.

Asking for a lenient sentence, Goh said he had to support his
wife and two children, aged three and four, as well as a mentally
ill mother.

He added in Mandarin: "He hit my dog and he is not guilty
but when I hit him, it's not okay."

Assistant Public Prosecutor Lydia Goh said Mr Yap had denied
abusing the dog but Goh still attacked him. She pointed out that
he had planned to assault Mr Yap at the void deck while the
latter was on his way to work.

The prosecutor added that Goh had a history of violence. In
2006, he was jailed for a month for causing hurt to a motorist
and breaching a personal protection order by hitting his wife.

Click to enlarge

District Judge Eddy Tham noted that Goh had not learnt from
his previous convictions and would still resort to violence when
things did not go his way.

The judge said Goh had set upon the victim with a pole and a
penknife, which fortunately was not used, with such force and
intensity that it left Mr Yap with two fractures.

After the hearing, Mr Yap told The Straits Times that he was
in the midst of a divorce.

Goh's family members said the dog was put to sleep in May 2009
as it had grown sickly and went blind.

Straits Times Interactive (web only), 21 April 2011

An 18-year-old youth was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 12
strokes of the cane for raping his then 14-year-old step-sister.
-- ST PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: JOYCE LIM

Youth sentenced to jail, caning for raping step-sister

By Elena Chong

A YOUTH who was on home leave when he raped his 14-year-old
step-sister was jailed for 10 years and ordered to be given 12
strokes of the cane on Wednesday.

As a result, the girl gave birth to a baby girl early last
year. The child has since been fostered out.

The 18-year-old accused had earlier admitted to two charges of
rape in February and March 2009, with another two taken into
consideration during the sentencing. A Community Court had heard
that the girl, now 16, did not consent to him having sex with
her.

She had in fact called out to her half-brother to get the keys
of the bedroom when the accused pulled her in and locked the door
on the first occasion. He raped her the following month (March
2009) when he was again on home leave. He had been sent to the
home for rioting.

Click to enlarge

The offences came to light when the girl told a school
counsellor in October 2009, what the accused had done to her. In
his oral decision, Community Court Judge Ng Peng Hong agreed with
the prosecution that a deterrent sentence was called for, in view
of the serious nature of the offences.

He said the victim was then a 14-year-old schoolgirl and
vulnerable when she was first raped at her own home. 'It was
aggravated by the fact that she became a mother to an unwanted
baby because of the rape committed by the accused,' he said. The
accused's sentence was backdated to Dec 4, 2009.